No school Wednesday, January, 18 and a number of schools out Thursday, January 19 made for quite a befuddling start to the annual Osborne High Varsity Scholars Bowl January 19. With a number of schools cancelling Thursday as well the schedules for the competition had to be reworked. In the process, the one making the new schedules, Mr. Rush, made a number of mistakes which caused a delay of game you might say. However, the 14 teams that did make it were patient and our workers are problem solvers so about thirty minutes after 4:00 we got the Scholars Bowl up and running. Once the Scholars Bowl got under way it went well thanks to all of the volunteers. One coach said he thought the workers did a good job, which is why schools like to attend our event. So thank you to all the volunteers who helped bring this Scholars Bowl about and thank you to all you workers who had planned to help but didn't get the chance since several teams were not able to come.
The outcome of this Scholars Bowl was quite intense. There were two pools at this event and the top two teams from each pool went on to the finals. St. Johns took first place, being undefeated, with Osborne finishing in second place in the blue pool. With the green pool, Trego and Tipton tied for 1st place with five wins and one loss each, however, Tipton had defeated Trego when they met in the regular rounds. Thus St. John's went up against Trego in the semifinal round and Tipton played Osborne. Both St. John's and Osborne won the semifinal rounds. This meant that Trego and Tipton went head to head for third and fourth place. At the end of 16 questions Tipton and Trego were tied. In the second tie breaker question Tipton scored earning them the third place medal and Trego took fourth with the final score being 60 to 50. It was a good round to watch. Both teams competed well. In the last final round the undefeated Blue Jays went up against the Bulldogs for a second time. Both teams played with great intensity. Within three questions the Blue Jays had a twenty point lead. However, Osborne scored 70 points on the next ten questions. The final score of this final round was Osborne 65 and St. John's 30. So the Osborne team earned their first gold medal this season and St. John's earned the silver. It was something to see the intensity all four teams had in these final two rounds.
I want to say thanks again to all the workers who made this event happen and to all those who had planned to help. You made it possible for all the teams to compete.
There are only two Scholars Bowls remaining in this season. Monday, January 23, Phillipsburg will host and Wednesday, January 25, St. John's will host the League Tournament. Thursday, February 2 Osborne will travel to Lincoln to compete in the KSHSAA Regional Scholars Bowl. If the team competes at the Regional as they did tonight they may make it to State. That would be something. Time will tell. Go Dogs!!
